Ambush in the Everglades by Petie McCarty

Ambush in the Everglades by Petie McCarty

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Blurb

 Plenty of action-adventure in this romantic-suspense tale. Photographer Kayli Heddon is given the biggest assignment of her career—a photo essay on the Everglades Restoration—and a special airboat safari is arranged, so Kayli can get her pictures. What she doesn’t count on is being stranded alone in the Everglades with her handsome and unpredictable airboat guide. Kayli is forced to learn some tough lessons. Trust means everything in the dangerous River of Grass, and a skilled partner makes all the difference in your survival. 

Skye Landers takes the airboat safari gig as a favor to his cousin who is called out of town. Skye doesn’t expect the governor’s photographer to catch his eye, but Kayli Heddon is unlike any woman he has ever met. He knows he should keep his distance, but common sense flies out the window whenever she gets near. 

Unfortunately, Kayli thinks honesty is the most important thing in a relationship—any relationship—and Skye Landers is a fraud. When secrets surface from his past, Kayli and Skye are soon on the run from more than just alligators.

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Review

I like to start reviews by talking about the things I enjoyed. I enjoyed the fact that the main character, Kayli, has a job to do and knows how to do it. She’s supremely competent, has fantastic knowledge of her field, and has things she’s passionate about outside of men, clothes, and food. She’s able to tell a man no, and she’s able to discern when the right time to tell a man no might be.

This does become an issue, for which I have to give credit to McCarty. There are times in a woman’s life when she does have to evaluate whether or not saying “no” is the safest bet at the moment, and I appreciate the fact that McCarty shows that dilemma for Kayli during the story.

The plot never stops moving. In romantic suspense this is a good thing, and this thing has more twists and turns than some lonely mountain roads. I almost fell off a couple of times. This is definitely a good thing, and I feel like I can learn a lot from the way the action in this book never, ever stops.

I honestly did have fun reading this, but I did have a few issues. For one thing, the book is incredibly regressive, and one way the book is regressive is in its “hero,” Skye.

Skye doesn’t like taking orders from women. This is probably supposed to set up conflict for the two main characters, but it just makes him come off like a sexist prick. Yes, he knows the terrain. He doesn’t know the project, and he agreed to take on a project for his cousin. He’s a contractor. He’s been hired. And the first time we get his point of view he’s sitting there deciding Kayli needs to be taught a lesson.

I wanted to teach him a lesson. I wanted Kayli to brain him with a piece of equipment and toss him over the side, leaving him for the alligators to eat. Now, I realize this would have made for a very short book. I just couldn’t hope for the two of them to wind up together when the guy is essentially a medieval brute with good hair and abs.

Then there’s his attitude when he realizes he’s interested in Kayli, but believes she has a boyfriend. He won’t go after another man’s woman, you see. Never mind what she wants, she’s someone else’s property.

I seriously wanted to drown this guy, never mind the abs. He’s a pig. His abs are his sole redeeming characteristic, which is why they’re on the cover.

And while they have plenty of sexual chemistry, they don’t get along. They can’t have a single conversation that doesn’t explode into an argument, probably because Skye’s personality is like cat litter combined with dynamite. Okay, fine, he’s got some age-old childhood wounds, but at this point they’ve festered and gone septic.

Kayli doesn’t deserve him. No one deserves him. If they end up together they’ll wind up in a domestic violence situation, because everything anyone says offends Skye and all he does is stomp around angry all the time. He’s always angry, it’s his default state, and he needs to get help before he even thinks about getting into a relationship. Men like him hurt people.

Then there’s the other issue. Skye, along with many of the other characters, are Seminole. I was excited about this when I started the book, because I know next to nothing about Seminole culture and more representation is good, right? 

Then the Magical Old Indian Man showed up. Which… I don’t want to give spoilers away here. This is not a paranormal novel. There was no need for this tired, overdone trope to pop into this book. I got to that part, I went into the kitchen, and I made myself another martini.

Again, I enjoyed this book. I truly did enjoy it and I think I can learn a lot from it. I did have a couple of issues with it, and they’re pretty big ones. They’re not issues everyone will share, but some people will and they should probably be aware of them going in.

That said, I loved the pace of this book, I liked the governor and Skye’s cousins, and I loved the idea behind the book. If you want a book that never stops moving, you’ll love this.